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I let the work life rest.  It was early May with 6 weeks of school left.  I was 15 1/2 yrs old and thoroughly fed up with it.  My grades had dropped back to a D average and I was flat out flunking in English, Spanish and doing "D work" in everything else except my Shop class.  Lazy and friends that were of similar mind and condition, maybe not as awful but still had a big dislike of SUHS.  Hazel was on my ass too and Harold was working so I had no protector.  So one particular late night I summoned up my anger and angst.   Just past midnight I  grabbed Hazel's keys, removed the key for the Buick, packed a few changes of clothes, robbed her purse of $10 and left for San Diego and my mother.  Hazel had been sound asleep in the lounge chair in the TV room, Harold was asleep too so I was free to go, and go I did!  The year was 1960 and gas was about 30 cents a gallon.  The Buick was never empty as it was needed to take Hazel to the hospital when she had a crisis or a cigarette need.  I dared not fuel up in Selma or Kingsburg as everyone about the town recognized the pink and white 1956 2Dr Buick Century of Hazel and Harold Petersen.  So down Highway 99 South I went towards San Diego and relief from Hazel's yelling, my bad grades and the gang of fellas I was hanging with in those days.  I kept my speed to 55 to avoid being harried by the CHP or local police and finally stopped in Bakersfield to fill up.  Bakersfeild was 90 miles or so from Selma and at the foot of the "Grapevine" as it  was called leading to Los Angeles.

Grapevine Hwy 99 

 The Grapevine was a terror for both cars and trucks, the long, steep curvy roadway caused many an accident and deaths over the years.  After filling up I set out climbing the Grapevine behind a long line of semi-trucks as I had little experience on hills as it was and with the sun coming up over the hills I was blinded now and again, behind the trucks was shadow and relative safety at 35 mph!

Jobs, More Jobs...

Hazel was always supportive of my working outside our home.  She was a hardworker herself as was Harold.  She worked at a large packing house between Selma and Reedley where she was their bookkeeper.  She had worked there many harvest seasons and sometimes even during the off year time.
She liked the work and the people.  The job made her feel useful, even knowing she had the dreaded cancer doing it's best to kill her.  During those years she was off and on in the hospital and had many operations to clear out the latest tumors or adhesions.  She struggled with her illness and slowly lost more and more weight and stamina.  It was terrible to live through. Terrible to witness day by day.  Harold worked as many hours as he could at Libby, McNeil and Libby as the head electrician to support us and pay off the ever looming medical bills for Hazel's treatments.  He escaped much of the woe that was Hazel's life but he tirelessly worked and kept his humor up.

Fruitvale Elementary School

I filled out the application for the job at Woolworths and returned it through their mailslot on Monday before school.  It's all I could think about during my classes that day.  After school I rode back to Woolworths and greeted the manager.  She said she liked the application and wanted me to start the very next day!  I was elated!  Starting pay was $1.65/hr and I'd work 4pm - 6:30pm Monday thru Friday with my weekends off.  I'd be making more that at the pharmacy and no Saturdays, terrific!  I could go to the movies or run around with my buddies.

Selma High School, Science Building 1958

The work was easy if repetitive.  Neaten all shelves, put the correct things in the correct locations, price everything as it was put out and open the large shipping boxes and stack them in the large warehouse room in the back of the store.  The cashier, Mary, was nice and easy to get along with and helped me with prices when the manager was unavailable...on a smoke break or chatting with her friends or the owner on her office phone.  The worst part of the job was the monthly inventory which always tookplace on the last Saturday of the month.  The mechandise was soupto nuts, hundreds of items and, sometimeshundreds to count of each one!  It lso made for one very long Saturday, typically we worked to get it all done by 7or 7:30 but there were times, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years when big shipments came in and it took until 8 or 9pm to complete the counts.  I liked working there, it was clean, cool in warm weather (it had Air Conditioning!) and the manager was good to her employees.  I got laid off just after the last Saturday following Easter.  I couldn't escape that last inventory!

Jobs, now what?

My junior year at Selma Union High School had just started when I decided I needed money above and beyond my weekly 10 dollar allowance.  I needed to save for a car, pay for insurance, gas and all the rest (INSURANCE!), costs that yet I had not yet known too.

Woolworths

A friend of mine had worked during the summer at the Woolworth 5 and Dime across the street from the Park movie theater and told me he had just quit that morning.  I jumped on my bike and rode like the wind to the Woolworths, parked it and went inside.  I ignored the cashier, a girl about my age, and saw a mature woman loading some merchandise on a cart in the back of the store. I approached her and told her I was looking for work, she said,"wait here". I looked around and noted many of the boxes were from Japan, new labels in english were placed over the Japanese writing deascribing the contents.  I was fascinated.  "TOY TRUCK, 4 WHEEL","DOLL BABY, 6", "RULER 12" WOOD" on and on they went in stacks 4 feet high. She returned "Here you go Howard (She knew my name!), fill it out and return it to me by Monday afternoon."  I was elated to say the least, I rode home to fill the application.